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Czech language studies in Latvia

Faculty of Humanities of University of Latvia - academic course for students  and Skrivanek Baltic - courses for individuals and legal persons

1. Czech language studies in Latvia


a) Faculty of Humanities of University of Latvia - academic course for students.

 

The Faculty of Humanities of University of Latvia is the only institution offering program education in the field of Czech language. It originated in early 2010s by merging of two faculties - the Faculty of Modern Languages ​​and the Faculty of Philology and Arts (the former Faculty of Philology).
The Czech language in the Faculty of Humanities has been studied since 1997 (then it was the Faculty of Philology), when the local bohemians who studied Czech language in St. Petersburg started teaching the language. The greatest boom in the Czech language studies was marked during 1999 and 2004, when officially invited Czech lecturers did lecturing. The Bohemian and Polonistics Centre, which was opened on the initiative of Czech and Polish lecturers in October 2002, made a big contribution to the teaching of the Czech language. Since 2006, a local bohemian Nadežda Kopoloveca, a member of the teaching staff and a head of the Bohemian and Polonistics Centre, started teaching the Czech language. In 2018, she successfully defended her doctoral thesis by comparing Czech and Latvian political discourse, and obtained a Degree of Doctor of Philology (Ph.D.). She was also elected as an associate professor of the Czech language in January 2019.

Czech and Polish languages at the University of Latvia are studied within the Russian Philology program as the main secondary Slavic language. Every second year, during the spring semester, students (usually from 8 to 15 students) choose to study Czech language. The total number of academic hours is 224, which after two years, with a view to additional self-preparation, allows students to reach B1 levels under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Czech language studies in Latvia attract both exchange and visiting students – from two to five students, including students from the Czech Republic, attend classes every semester, usually with a view to seeing how language is taught in Latvia as a foreign language.

Each year, the Latvian students have the opportunity to go to the Czech Republic to study Czech as a foreign language, both on the basis of Erasmus and in the frameworks of bilateral treaties concluded between the Czech and Latvian republics. The Bohemian and Polonistics Centre is actively cooperating with the Czech Embassy in Riga and higher education institutions in the Czech Republic and Latvia, enabling students to visit events related to Czech culture in Latvia regularly.

 

b) Skrivanek Baltic - courses for individuals and legal persons


Since February 2008, Skrivanek Baltic, a branch of the Czech translation company successfully operating in Latvia since 2003, offers the Czech language courses for individuals and legal persons. Unfortunately, the interest in Czech is insufficient to create groups; therefore, the teaching is realized individually.